Friday, December 26, 2008

Backing into 2009

In 1990 the incoming National government wasted no timein getting rid of laws like the Pay Equity Act and the LabourRelations Act. Within a year or so it rolled back most of thelate Labour government’s progressive social legislation.Now, in 2008, the incoming National government has alsowasted no time in repealing a different set of laws. Thistime they’re rolling back the green agenda. Or, to put itanother way, they’re giving the fingers to global warming,resource depletion and all that namby-pamby nonsenseabout saving the planet.

It is perfectly valid, actually, to ask what planet John Keyand his colleagues are on, because all the evidence so far isthat it’s not Planet Earth. They're talking up roading at theexpense of rail. They've ridiculed out of existence a more(literally) enlightened approach to light-bulb use. They’vedispensed with the previous government’s requirement,nugatory as it was, for petrol to contain at least a splash ofbiofuel. They're allowing again the building of coal- and gas-fired power stations. They've put the Emissions TradingScheme on ice.

Of course the argument is that we’re in the middle of aneconomic crisis (how convenient) and that people’s incomesand immediate fiscal welfare must come first. Fireman, savethat job! Can they not get it through their skulls that, if notconfronted now, the much more significant eco-crisis we’rein will cost everyone far much more in the long run?Goodness knows, the Clark government was scarcely anenvironmental role model, but it looks positively deepgreen compared with the Tories' business-friendly blue.

My heart sinks when I hear John Key boast that economicgrowth is his 'No 1, No 2 and No 3 priority'. The Speechfrom the Throne, which outlined the new government'sprogram was, as Rod Oram said in his Sunday Star-Times column, a speech for 'a time and conditions that no longerexist.' Brilliant. New Zealand has just elected a governmentfacing backwards. So we blunder into 2009, not greenly, asit were, but bluely and Brownlee.

2 comments:

It is interesting to see you use the phrase:"...but it looks positively deepgreen compared with the Tories' business-friendly blue..." Will be truly ironic once the shrieking from business when we are hammered by green tariffs in our distant markets as a result of the "the gummints lack of vision and leadership" begins.

The National government - looking backwrds - reflects those who voted for them. Thre is a HUGE mass of people out there who know very little about a great deal. They are arrogant in their ignorance. We can see this in the "policies" of the National party as articulated by David Farrar in a comment on The Standard recently (December 22, 2008 at 8:38 pm):

What infrastructure? Which bureaucrat? What regulation? How much tax and at what cost in reduced services?

None of that was clear - or known. Together they add up to a vague list of unfounded prejudices and preconceptions.

Facts? Not necessary when your *beliefs* are enough.

Evidence? Irrelavent when you have *faith* you are right.

The common theme here is the underlying presumption that the facts - reality - doesn't matter.

It's the same madness that infects the minds of US Republicans and lead us all t the biggest global crash since the Depression. Reality always wins.

Yet here were in New Zealand, REPEATING this folly at a time when its consequences are manifest.....but the arrogant inorants don't know what they are looking at and assume that their faith in the very same policies that caused this mess ("less bureaucracy" and "Less regulation" for sarters) is the way forward.

Incredible.

But you can see why it is this way. National is the party of followers. They don't allow much democracy in the that party and they plan to get rid of MMP and strip the rest of us of the only vote that actually counts....for their own advantage, of course.

By contrast, a party like the Green Party is full of well-informed people who insist on being able to vote on *everything* - candidates, leaders, list rankings, party officers, pos-election agreements and major policy planks. Not a party of followers - as anyone who has been to a Green conference can attest.

Democracy requires voters make informed choices. The people who voted for National appear to have voted on faith alone.....lacking the background knowledge to see that parties policies for what they are: a *proven* fast-track to corruption, fraud and failure BECAUSE the policies themselves fail to take account of reality.

Who knew? Not National's voters....clearly.

Not that Labour's voters know any more....but at least Labour's policies showed a higher level of correltation with verifiable reality - embodid in the very policies National is now geting rid of with such blind glee.